Car Insurance: when a named driver has an accident in your car

jaybill22

Hi all.
New to the forum but in a real predicament. Here's the scenario:
In Feb, my wife had an accident (not her fault) in my car. I own the car, I'm the main driver, she's a named driver. I made a claim on my insurance, as it's MY insurance SHE is named on. Car all sorted, nothing to pay at my end. Happy days.
However...
My wife's car insurance for HER car is up for renewal. When we get to the question about "Have you had any accidents, made a claim, etc...in the last five years" what do we put? Does she say YES as she had an accident in MY car, although NOT her fault and NOT her car? Or NO?
When she adds me as a named driver, same question...what do we put? YES because I claimed on MY insurance for HER accident? Or NO because SHE was driving?
Do we put YES on both as it was MY insurance policy but it was HER driving the car and SHE had the accident?
Surely we can't both be penalised for the same incident, when only one of us was in the car at the time?
My insurance company have advised that the accident/claim should be put on MY record as it was ME who made a claim on MY policy.
My wife's insurance company say it should be HER who puts the accident/claim on HER record, aa she was driving.
But when you go onto comparison sites, it asks you the question for each driver and we both think YES...YES my wife must click YES because she had an accident in the last five years...and YES, as a named driver on her policy, I HAVE made a claim, irrespective of blame, fault and not driving.
So....
Any ideas what to put?!? I'm losing it, here, stressing over whether or not we are legally accurate in case either of us have another accident in the future. Please help.
Thanks in advance.
jaybill22

MovingForwards

Yes, she had an accident.
Yes, you had a claim.

It's not penalising you, it's risk; having had one accident / claim there is a higher risk of having another and the policy will be priced accordingly. Even if it's a non-fault accident, it's still a high risk of having another.

jaybill22

Thanks for the comment.

lisyloo

Comparison sites are a blunt instrument.

It's really important that you check information is passed correctly to the insurer and yes there is a dstinction between and accident and a claim. This is your responsibility (to check) if you want to DIY your insurance.

I'm not sure generally that people understand the responsibility they have in this regard as we see so many posts on here where people just haven't read their post.

I would do this before signing on the dotted line and paying. Although there is a cooling off period it's often not free and there are usually cancellation charges.

You could of course use a high st broker and let them use their business experience and do the legwork.

Unfortunately you do get penalised twice these days. Claims result in a loss of no claims discount and accidents are "penalised" or priced according the new risk if you like. On the plus side I have noticed that sometimes the "penalty" for a single accident is not always that high if at all, so it does recognise that anyone can be unlucky once, although it does depend on other risk factors as well and by that I mean a 50 year old would fare better than an 18 year old.

Jumblebumble

jaybill22 said:

Hi all.
New to the forum but in a real predicament. Here's the scenario:
In Feb, my wife had an accident (not her fault) in my car. I own the car, I'm the main driver, she's a named driver. I made a claim on my insurance, as it's MY insurance SHE is named on. Car all sorted, nothing to pay at my end. Happy days.
However...
My wife's car insurance for HER car is up for renewal. When we get to the question about "Have you had any accidents, made a claim, etc...in the last five years" what do we put? Does she say YES as she had an accident in MY car, although NOT her fault and NOT her car? Or NO?
When she adds me as a named driver, same question...what do we put? YES because I claimed on MY insurance for HER accident? Or NO because SHE was driving?
Do we put YES on both as it was MY insurance policy but it was HER driving the car and SHE had the accident?
Surely we can't both be penalised for the same incident, when only one of us was in the car at the time?
My insurance company have advised that the accident/claim should be put on MY record as it was ME who made a claim on MY policy.
My wife's insurance company say it should be HER who puts the accident/claim on HER record, aa she was driving.
But when you go onto comparison sites, it asks you the question for each driver and we both think YES...YES my wife must click YES because she had an accident in the last five years...and YES, as a named driver on her policy, I HAVE made a claim, irrespective of blame, fault and not driving.
So....
Any ideas what to put?!? I'm losing it, here, stressing over whether or not we are legally accurate in case either of us have another accident in the future. Please help.
Thanks in advance.
jaybill22

You ask the insurance company 
You are best off not asking people on here because they do not know.
For what it's worth when this happened to me  my insurers (Axa) were only interested in my saying Yes and my wife as the named driver saying NO as they said it was the same car in the accident.